I have a RS-TX20 and I use the IR connection to change the channels on my Dish Network Satellite box (I have a few International channels), however, I also have COX Digital cable and I would like to know how to change the channels on it with my RS-TX20. The COX digital box does not have a Serial connection so that is not an option. Thanks for your help.

Unfortunately, the DVD recorder/drive of my Toshiba RS-TX60 [quite a while ago] broke. Actually, I'm not sure it's exactly broken... what happened was that a DVD disc got stuck in the device and somehow I got it out. It's been a while since that happened so I don't remember what I had to do to get the disc out. But I no longer use it for DVD playback. Also, I no longer use the DVD-recording functionality because I don't want this happening again.

From what I remember, the unit was stuck on a loading screen for the longest time (while the disc was stuck in there) and also, I may have had to send it in for a software reinstall. It was not a pleasant experience.

I'd risk it... a DVD burning/playing unit w/o the DVD in operation is like any other Tivo and quite limited! You may discover that it was just one weird disk. I've had CDs DVDs get stuck in my laptop's drive and eventually, once out, everything is fine again.

I'd risk it... a DVD burning/playing unit w/o the DVD in operation is like any other Tivo and quite limited! You may discover that it was just one weird disk. I've had CDs DVDs get stuck in my laptop's drive and eventually, once out, everything is fine again.

Click to expand...

I'd say that it's not even as good as any other TiVo. Only one tuner and limited HDD capacity. Although having controls on the front of the unit is a bonus.

I love my RS-TX20 even though I'm only using TiVo basic with it. But if it didn't have the DVD capabilities, I'd change my tune.

Need some hints...
I have tried the reboot - hold pause - type in 57 kickstart 6 times with no apparent success on my TX20. I want to scan the drive as there times when there are specific programs that will not record to DVD no matter what I do. Transferred to PC, they contain synch errors that videoredo fixes, so that must be related.

Can anyone give me the step-by-step for this unit, since the indicator lights are not like the regular TiVo when going through the boot sequence? I thought I got it to take a couple times, but it never showed a green screen as far as I could tell, if it did it was a flash and gone. And some of the programs are still having trouble recording to DVD, repeatedly. Other program record to DVD just fine, first time, every time.

Other than this (and the slow-slow-slow response time which is a constant), this unit works fine since day 1 and we have recorded hundreds of DVDs with it.

sledhed,
I'm thinking that your TiVo is operating normally. Yes, some programs will make coasters, nobody really knows why. I did the whole Hogan's Heroes series, and made 3 or 4 coasters out of the 35 discs. It sucks that I had to transfer those 3 or 4 discs, which is so slow.

If you're still using the original hard drive, you may want to freshen it up. Now's a good time before the new fall TV season. Maybe do a Clear and Delete Everything, which theoretically would defragment the drive. Or re-image it in a PC. You could run some disc diagnostics at that time. Running 24/7 for 5 years, you may want to retire the drive and put in a new much bigger drive. You can still find IDE drives, but soon it'll be tough. Maybe you should drop the $75 - $100, and buy a few more years of enjoyment with the machine.

sledhed,
I'm thinking that your TiVo is operating normally. Yes, some programs will make coasters, nobody really knows why. I did the whole Hogan's Heroes series, and made 3 or 4 coasters out of the 35 discs. It sucks that I had to transfer those 3 or 4 discs, which is so slow.

If you're still using the original hard drive, you may want to freshen it up. Now's a good time before the new fall TV season. Maybe do a Clear and Delete Everything, which theoretically would defragment the drive. Or re-image it in a PC. You could run some disc diagnostics at that time. Running 24/7 for 5 years, you may want to retire the drive and put in a new much bigger drive. You can still find IDE drives, but soon it'll be tough. Maybe you should drop the $75 - $100, and buy a few more years of enjoyment with the machine.

Click to expand...

Chester, that is funny, that is the same series we are recording and having problems with. I don't think a single episode of the original Star Trek I have been recording has failed, neither has Stargate (both off of Dish local channel feeds). Hogans Heroes is off of TVLand, dish network. All standard def stuff.

Maybe the kickstart disk scan will address the issue, maybe not. If it doesn't, transfer to PC and burn there is an option I suppose, but that means buying software that will convert the .tivo's into standard mpeg for dvd... not sure if an OEM version of Roxio will do it, also not sure if I have one (that came with my dvd burner)...

Still it is more of a pain to do that even if I do have the software. Not sure my wife will do it since there are so many steps. If it burned DVDs just like on the Tivo unit, same menus and everything, that would be ideal, but it does not seem like it does that...

Chester, that is funny, that is the same series we are recording and having problems with. I don't think a single episode of the original Star Trek I have been recording has failed, neither has Stargate (both off of Dish local channel feeds). Hogans Heroes is off of TVLand, dish network. All standard def stuff.

Maybe the kickstart disk scan will address the issue, maybe not. If it doesn't, transfer to PC and burn there is an option I suppose, but that means buying software that will convert the .tivo's into standard mpeg for dvd... not sure if an OEM version of Roxio will do it, also not sure if I have one (that came with my dvd burner)...

Still it is more of a pain to do that even if I do have the software. Not sure my wife will do it since there are so many steps. If it burned DVDs just like on the Tivo unit, same menus and everything, that would be ideal, but it does not seem like it does that...

Click to expand...

I believe that I did it all with freeware. I used the free version of TiVo desktop to transfer the recording. I then used directshow dump to decrypt the file to a standard MPEG2. Then I used TyTool to author a DVD, which I made an approximation of Humax/Toshiba's main menu. I may have used Nero to burn the disc itself, but I'm sure I could have used some freeware there too.

It still really sucks compared to burning four 30 minute high quality episodes in 20 minutes on the Toshiba. It takes hours with the network transfer/PC author method....

hey guys. im wanting to get a DVR with Basic TiVo service on it which i believe would be the Toshiba RS-TX20/60 and SD-H400, or Pioneer DVR-810H and DVR-57H.

what i need clarification on is if these do in fact have ATSC tuners in them or are they stuck with NTSC?? if no ATSC, can you hook up a digital converter box into them? thanks.

Click to expand...

No ATSC tuner. In fact they have only one NTSC tuner. You can apparently hook an external ATSC tuner, but there would be no appreciable picture quality difference. You can search for threads about ATSC tuners.

I don't think you would want a SD-H400 as it's a DVD player not recorder. You may be able to get a lifetime subscribed Humax cheap. They seem to have outsold all the Toshiba and Pioneers by a wide margin, and with people going HD, they can sometimes be had for less than the $300 lifetime subscription cost.

My dvd burner on my RS-Tx20 looks like it may be shot. It is having problems playing back and recording. I read some of the posts and it seems like most people are replacing them with the PIONEER DVR-112D. But newegg doesn't carry it anymore and other places are more expensive or less reliable.

Has anyone had any luck replacing the dvd drive with any other model or brand? Any help is appreciated.

Ok, here is a topic that has floated around a bit, but I haven't really seen a situation quite like mine. My TX-20 (Series 2) has been working fine for at least a year, but now it has decided to cycle through an endless loop of trying to boot up. I get the Welcome, powering up, then the lights cycle on and off, then I get the Almost there screen, then it starts over. This just started tonight after I bought a used Tivo remote. I was using an all-in-one universal remote before, which worked ok, but there were some features I couldn't access. I've tried to get into troubleshooting mode (57 or 54) by holding down the pause button, but nothing doing there. Any ideas of what to try next? Thanks.

So is the hard drive toast? Is it repairable, or do I need to buy a new one? I'm comfortable replacing it, but from some reading I did in this forum, there are some instructions I'm not clear about, such as copy a mirror of the Tivo system, or something like that. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.